Wireless networks and mobile wireless devices continue to evolve as new communication technologies develop and standardize. Current mobile wireless devices can include support to connect to one or more wireless networks that can use different wireless communication technologies. A representative mobile wireless device can include support for one or more releases of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and/or Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless communication standards and/or one or more releases of the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) CDMA2000 1x (also referred to as 1xRTT or 1x) wireless communication standard. A representative wireless network can support connections to different mobile wireless devices that each can use one or more different wireless communication standards.
A mobile wireless device, upon power up initialization, can search for suitable radio sectors of one or more wireless networks that support compatible wireless communication standards with which the mobile wireless device can associate. The mobile wireless device can register with a located wireless network through one of the wireless network's radio sectors and can “camp” on the radio sector of the wireless network in an idle state. When in an idle state, no active signaling or data connections exist between the mobile wireless device and the wireless network; thus, the location of the mobile wireless device is provided to the wireless network through a periodic and/or random location update. In order to perform the initial registration of the mobile wireless device with the wireless network and also to communicate the location update to the wireless network, the mobile wireless device can send a signaling message to the wireless network to request that a signaling connection be established with the wireless network. The signaling connection can be used to transport one or more signaling messages between the mobile wireless device and the wireless network to complete the registration and/or the location update processes. Additionally, the mobile wireless device can seek to establish a signaling connection with the wireless network when there is a request for a circuit switched or packet switched connection.
During congested network conditions, the wireless network can reject the request from the mobile wireless device to establish the signaling connection, and the mobile wireless device can subsequently resend the request to establish the signaling connection, as without the signaling connection the information exchange required for the registration and/or location update can be unable to be completed. Each time the mobile wireless device receives a rejection from the wireless network, another signaling request can be sent. By repeatedly sending signaling connection requests to the wireless network, the mobile wireless device can drain its own limited battery resources. Similarly, when the mobile wireless device is located in an area of weak signal coverage, the mobile wireless device can receive no response from the wireless network to the request to establish the signaling connection, and again the mobile wireless device can repeatedly send the signaling request, thereby draining the battery more rapidly than desired. The mobile wireless device can also be configured to prefer connections to a wireless network that uses a later generation wireless communication protocol, such as to a 3G wireless network, over connections to an earlier generation wireless communication protocol, such as to a 2G wireless network. When rejected by or receiving no response from a more preferred 3G wireless network, the mobile wireless device can associate with a less preferred 2G wireless network and can attempt to switch back to the more preferred 3G wireless network. The mobile wireless device can repeatedly attempt to associate with the rejecting or non-responsive more preferred 3G wireless network rather than the less preferred 2G wireless network resulting in unnecessary battery drain. Thus, there exists a need for a method to manage network signaling between the mobile wireless device and the wireless network that minimizes power consumption during congested and/or poor signal quality conditions.